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• Dr. Wilfredo Iglesias, Internal Physician, joins the general medicine team
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The first Synchrony radiotherapy treatment in Spain

The radiotherapy team at the HC Cancer Center has started to perform the first Synchrony treatments in Spain. Synchrony has a tracking system that tracks the tumour in real time by adapting to the patient’s internal physiological movements, increasing accuracy during each session

 
This advanced technology, unique in Spain, combines the helical movement of TomoTherapy with a tumour-tracking system, enabling the optimal dose to be applied in the exact place with submillimetre precision, respecting healthy tissue as much as possible. This results in more effective radiotherapy treatment with fewer side effects, and a better quality of life.
 

The first patients to benefit from this technology

The first treatments performed at HC Cancer Center’s Radiotherapy Unit involve radiation sessions for cancer, probably renal origin, in a patient with a secondary lung lesion and a radical curative treatment for a patient with localized prostate cancer.

“Con cada sesión nuestros objetivos son lograr una respuesta local atacando cada lesión distante, y también aumentar la respuesta sistémica del tratamiento de inmunoterapia”, explica la Dra. Paula Sedano, radioterapeuta en HC Cancer Center.

“Our goal is to achieve a local response with each session by attacking each distant lesion, whilst also increasing the systemic response with immunotherapy treatment,”.explains Dr. Paula Sedano, radiation therapist at HC Cancer Center.
 
Thanks to the precision of this technology, “We have managed to make treatment regimens using extreme hypofractionation/SBRT and in the case of the prostate managed to reduce the number of sessions from 20-28 to 5”.
 

Experts from Accuray Italia with experience in the technique, visited HC Cancer Center’s facilities last week for the launch of this pioneering treatment in Spain. In a previous simulation each patient was found to be a suitable candidate, with a tumour which moved several centimetres during treatment. It was possible to successfully perform the treatments, conforming the dose and directing the radiation beam to the correct position whilst the tumour was moving.

Technology with great potential in the treatment of cancer

This technology has enabled the volume receiving the maximum dose to be reduced whilst better protecting at-risk structures such as the neurovascular bundle (responsible for sexual function) during prostate treatment.

 
“This procedure is able to predict tumour position by following respiration at a rate of 100 times per second, with a predictive model that is updated in real time, Synchrony modifies the treatment in tenths of a second, moving it and conforming it to the new position,” , explains radiophysicist José Antonio García Baltar.

““In conventional radiotherapy, tumour movement forces us to irradiate a larger area to achieve the required dose. With SYNCHRONY we reduce the treatment margins by further respecting healthy tissue, being able to increase the curative dose when indicated,” concludes García Baltar.

July 27, 2021